Shipwrecked
by AkaiMurasaki
Summary: Rubilax and Evangelyne get a chance to talk while searching for their friends. SEASON 2 spoilers, hinted Pinpin/Eva


A/N: First Wakfu fanfic! Yaaay!  
><strong>WARNING:<strong> this contains **spoilers for SEASON 2!** If you haven't watched it obssesively (like me) thus far. This lil' piece of (crap) work takes place after episode "Wabbit Island" and before "The Cursed Fountain". I actually wanted to post it sooner, but was constantly dissapointed with how it came out and probably screwed it up even more while trying to make it better.  
>SO SORRY.<p>

Aaaand there are probably typos and mistakes in here, seeing as english is not my native language. SO SORRY.

Oh, I don't own Wakfu or any of the characters. I own my fuzzy socks, though. Does it count?

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'_Great_,' she thought brushing sand off her clothes with quick, jerky motions. '_Shipwrecked again._'

She looked around, hoping to find a glimpse of someone familiar amidst the thick jungle bush starting just as the shoreline gave way from sand to solid ground. But no matter how much she strained her eyesight, she just couldn't see any traces of her companions anywhere. The waves continued their lazy rutine of advancing and retreating, the sea breeze rocked the green trees and made the leaves rustle. The sand beneath her feet was almost blindingly white, the water azure and the sky cloudless.

It was hell.

Evangelyne gave a heavy sigh. It seemed like she had to look for her comrades on her own and hope to stumble upon their tracks. She knew Yugo and Amalia would be alright - the Eliatrope was resorceful and the princess was in her domain: nature. The old skinflint would probably look for some treasure but ultimately would take care of himself.

The problem was, as usual if one wanted to be spiteful, Pinpin.

The Cra snorted to herself as she started the walk along the beach, looking around for any sign of her friends. The Iop would probably upon his awakening grab his sword, point it at anything that moved and maybe even attack the forest itself as if it was its fault he ended in this predicament. He would treat everything like a great adventure and a challenge and ultimately - end in even more trouble than he started with.

She smiled slightly at the thought of the Iop. It seemed as if he never really... left. Back then, when he was gone they all were slowly drifting apart. None of them would've admitted it but they all felt it. Evangelyne thought that it was a way for dealing with their grief and feeling of loss of their Knight. Amalia took up her duties as a princess and became more distant and haughty with each day. Yugo and Adamai disappeared for days in the forest, sometimes doing the little odd jobs no one bothered to do. Ruel was practically invisible. It was much later that Evangelyne learned the old Enutrof was actually busy stuffing his pockets with gold. She stepped over a piece of their 'cwaft' washed ashore and frowned at her thoughts. It was unfair of her to judge Ruel. Each of them had different ways with dealing with their loss. What did she do? She sat day by day in front of his statue, wallowing in grief.

She stopped and looked around. She was walking for quite some time now and all she has found were pieces of debris on the sand, but no sign of her friends yet. Evangelyne started walking again, her mind turning back to her thoughts again. After she has retrived Pinpin from Rubilaxia she couldn't really believe he was back. They all kept glancing over at him, as if expecting him to suddenly disappear. It was funny how easy they all fell back into the same roles as friends upon his return, like the rift caused by Tristepin's death never happened. He was back, the same Iop-brain they all knew and loved and needed and she couldn't be more happy.

She wondered often what would've she done if he had been gone for good. Would she ever move on? Would all members of the Brotherhood of Tofu grow slowly apart?

What they would've done, had Rubilax not saved his Guardian?

Evangelyne frowned. She did not like thinking about the Shushu. The bond he had with Tristepin was unique and hard to comprehend, even harder to be put in words. She did not like not being able to label things.

She shielded her eyes from the blazing sun with her hand and gave her surroundings a brief glance over. There was no doubt about it - Rubilax has saved Tristepin's life. What bothered her the most was that she did not know the reason why. Sure, Pinpin would say it was becuse they were 'buddies', that 'Rubi' isn't so bad and they have a bond and whatnot. She believed him - after all, he knew the demon the best, but something about this whole guardianship kept bugging her, like she was missing something important.

The way Pinpin trapped in the sword hung in that throne room - like a trophy, yet so out of reach one had to strain their neck to get a glimpse of it. Not, it occured to her later, when you were sitting on the throne. That seat provided you with the perfect view of the weapon.

And ever since they've come back from Rushu's World their bond has shifted somehow. Evangelyne couldn't quite place it, but their dynamics were different. Sure, the Shushu still made fun of his Guardian (often and with great gusto), but the taunts were now laced with some secret humor that only the two of them seemed to be privy of, if Pinpin's responses and his amused smirk were anything to go by. The demon was actually looking out for his guardian, warning him whenever his attention drifted away from danger, offering information and ideas of his own free will. It was done easily, effortlessly and seemed so natural between the two of them she felt flabgastered when she witnessed it. Of course, Tristepin never saw anything unusal in his Shushu's behavior. For him it was just another proof of what 'good buddies' the two of them were.

Evangelyne closed her eyes and sighed again. This whole thing was giving her a headache. She stopped, massaging her temples and warily opened her eyes. The same landscape she passed for the last hour greeted her: white sand, sea and trees stretching before her and no one familiar in sight, in fact nothing out of place at all - except for the glint of steel in the sun.

Wait a minute.

She focused her sight on the bright reflection and an involutary smile broke across her lips. Following the well known adage of 'if there is something shiny, Ruel must be near' she ran towards the object. It's presence must mean that at least one of her friends would be near. Her earlier stormy thoughts dissappeared with the rush of hope of no longer suffering alone on this hot, sand infested island.

Her good humor didn't last long.

As Evangelyne came to a stop in front of her destinantion, she felt all of her enthusiasm deflate from dissappointment and being replaced with barely repressed resentment.

"Why, hello there, little Cra. Any chance you will give me a lift?"

"Rubilax. Of course." she spat at the sword imbedded in sand and gave a furtive glance in search of the Guardian, but there were no ginger heads in sight.

"Well, are we going? I'd rather not rust here." he grumbled at her, his lone eye glaring at her with a somehow still bored yet expectant expression. She clenched her fists and briefly considered leaving him there, but quickly decided against it. If Tristepin ever lost his sword he would probably stop at nothing to get it back, Shushu included. Carefully she wrapped her fingers around the hilt, mentally bracing herself - almost expecting the demon to try and posses her - but Rubilax kept his dissinterested gaze locked somewhere on the trees and seemed to no longer pay her any mind.

"Pinpin is not with you?" she asked, if only to break the awkward silence that hung between them. The eye gave a startled grunt and turned to her, only to glare sarcastically. Evangelyne still couldn't understand how a sword could portray so many expressions.

"Do I look like I'm hiding him in my pockets?"

She glared back and attached the sword to her belt and continued to walk. She managed to make maybe five steps when Rubilax spoke up again, this time more subdued.

"You're going in the wrong direction."

She glanced at him, but he was once more staring at the tree line.

"By whose definition? I'm looking for my friends." she deliberately excluded him from their group and felt a small twinge of guilt, followed by smugness. "If I'll walk along the beach I'm bound to find their tracks sooner or later."

Rubilax didn't answer, but Evangelyne could swear she could almost sense him rolling his eye. She scanned the beach more fervently now - her discovery of the demon strengthening her belief in the rightness of her plan. Soon she would find all of the Brotherhood and from there it would be just another adventure, and-

"You're still going in the wrong direction."

She counted to ten, then twenty and took a deep breath.

"Hey, you hear me, blondie? You're going in the wrong direction!"

That was it.

"What is wrong with you? I'm looking for my friends! I don't even know where they are, so how can you say I'm going the wrong way? I don't know how Pinpin can stand you. Stop pestering me!"

They continued in silence. Evangelyne was fuming silently, almost wishing the Shushu kept arguing with her so she could vent her frustration. She supposed she should be nicer to the one who saved Pinpin but the confusion in her mind made her act before she could think. The Cra debated wheter she should apologize or not when Rubilax decided to speak once more.

"I don't know why he puts up with you. You're acting more stupidly than he does."

Evangelyne raised her hands to the sky, asking silently Cra to give her strength to not bury the damned Shushu in sand.

"I'm telling you," the demon continued and Eva noticed with annoyance the note of smugness in his voice. "you're going the wrong direction. Is that so difficult to understand? And here I was thinking you were above the Iop intelligence. Maybe we should change the saying from 'Iop-brains to 'Cra-brains." he chuckled at that. "Not that there is any significant difference." A pause. "Maybe in hair style."

Oh, that was it.

The Cra grabbed the sword and leveled it with her eyes. She glared at his smug eye and she could feel her teeth grinding against each other. If she could just punch him, or simply leave him here!

"Fine, you demon! Where, according to you, should I be walking?" she shook him a little and showed him the tree line. "Well? Tell me!" She knew he was bluffing. There was no way he could know where her companions were.

"If you go between those trees and follow a straight line, you should reach the idiot before your little blond head fries."

She gave him _A_ _Look_.

"What?"

"Oh, I don't know." she shrugged. "I should follow the directions given me by a cursed, Shushu infested sword, who just wants to help me find my lost friends out of the goodness of his heart." she deadpanned and his pupil narrowed in anger.

"Maybe it didn't occur to you, little Cra, but your company is not most desired by me and I would much prefer the idiot. Or anyone else but you."

"Oh, so you want to go back to Pinpin? Great Rubilax afraid of a 'little Cra'? I'm sorry, I should've realized sooner!" she mocked and noticed with glee he was visibly seething.

"Who would be afraid of you, little Cra?" the Shushu growled. "Shouldn't you be willing to return to the Iop's side much more fervently? I'm giving you simple instructions here, very Iop-friednly. Forest, walk in a straight line, destination reached."

"Do you take me for an Iop-brain? You damned Shushu, you won't trick me!" she stomped along the beach, picking up her speed as she went and ignoring the curses thrown her way.

"I'm telling the truth, you idiot! Think for a minute, if that's not too much for you: what would I gain with lying now?"

"Amusement from watching me chase your imaginary hints?"

"There is that. But I had enough of that already."

Evangelyne stopped and heaved a sigh. She was going to regret this.

"Will you promise me that if I follow your directions I will find Pinpin?"

"As much as it disgusts me - yeah."

She felt her shoulders drop as she turned towards the looming, altough quite meager looking forest.

"Let's go, then."

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If Evangelyne thought the beach was hot, it was nothing compared to the opressive, humid heat of the forest. Calling it a forest was a nice thing to do, actually - the vegetation was frail and sickly green in color and the ground awfully dry. She kept following the demons instructions, stopping from time to time to look around. The Shushu kept quiet, speaking only to reaffirm his stand.

"How much farther, Rubilax?" she panted. The humidity was killing her - Evangelyne felt as if her whole body was sticky and hot.

"Keep going. The idiot is moving towards the end of the forest."

"How do you know that?" she asked, even after her body obeyed and moved onwards. The question kept bugging her for a while and it gave her that familiar feeling of the secrecy of the Shushu-Guardian bond. "You have some Pinpin radar?"

He was silent for a while, then "No. I don't."

"Ah, so," she ducked under a low hanging branch, "you know where all of my friends are?"

"No. Just Pinpin."

She gave him a puzzled look, but it seemed he didn't want to elaborate.

"You should hurry. If he keeps it up you'll lose him."

"Iop-brains, he probably went off in search of an adventure and got even more lost. Fighting shadows and arachnes. Always swinging his sword at everyone and anything that comes his way." she grumbled and quickened her pace.

"A Cra like you won't understand."

"What's to understand? A couple of dungeons, lots of brawls makes a happy Iop. Brute strenghth and no thought!" she seethed. The hot air, the humidity and the ache in her legs made her snap angrily.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?"

"You're no better than him. A Brawler Shushu, was it?" she smirked at him. "You're a pair made in hell! One more eager to die than the other." she trailed of at the end, remembering the fight with Nox at its grim finale, then Rubilaxia. She felt ashamed now for bringing that up. She never really thanked the Shushu for keeping Tristepin alive, none of them did. She justified her actions as seeing that Rubilax was too much of a proud demon to accept any kind of thanks. In fact, he would deny any act of kindness, despite obvious proofs. Of course he had his share of evil - they have suffered his treachery once or twice, or thrice... Evangelyne was torn wheter she should apologize or not, weighning those two sides of the Shushu.

The silence between them stretched on as the Cra continued her march. Unbeknowst to her, Rubilax kept watching her for a while then finally closed his lone eye in resignation.

"A Cra like you won't understand."

She didn't reply.

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She stepped over a fallen tree, stumbling slightly from exhaustion. It felt as if she was walking for days instead of hours and the land seemed to be against her. Evangelyne hoped her friends were faring better, or at least they didn't have to stumble blindly in a bug infested forest, searching for an Iop-brain who was by now probably starving and severely dehydrated. Cra knew the Knight couldn't take care of himself.

And the silence was killing her.

Rubilax went quiet after their last talk. Normally Evangelyne would consider it a blessing but in those wretched conditions she was desperate for any kind of distraction, Shushu mockery included.

"Are you going to explain to me how can you tell where Pinpin is?"

Silence. Evangelyne concentrated on evading brambles and tried to hide her dissapointment. She decided to press the matter, if only to keep talking and distract herself from how tired she was.

"Or is it a secret kind of thing? Spying, maybe?"

Silence again. Evangelyne felt frustration rise within her (like it often did when the demon was around) and decided to focus on something else.

"Being a Guardian of a Shushu like me isn't that simple."

The sudden answer startled her and made her lose her focus. The twigs she was just parting slipped from her hand and smacked her square in the chest.

"What?" Evangelyne struggled a bit to get through the surprisingly thick bush. "What do you mean by that?"

"You lot keep thinking anyone can wield me. Just grab me and hack away. Just like Tristepin does, right?"

The Cra kept quiet, for it was mostly true. She never really understood the duties of a Shushu Guardian, what it entailed, what one had to become to earn the title. She always thought it must be simple - for Cra's sake, an Iop made it, so how hard could it be? But now, listening to Rubilax and his serious tone of voice, she began to doubt.

"I suppose there must be some kind of catch, then?" she enquired and the Shushu gave a grunt.

"You could say that."

"Care to elaborate?"

The demon was quiet for a while again and she started to suspect he wouldn't answer this time either, when finally she heard him speak, as if to himself.

"I feel his heart. I feel his soul. I know everything about him - his past, his fears, his hopes and failures. Things you never even thought to ask, didn't you?"

She bristled at that and grabbed him from her belt, glaring at the eye that stared back seemingly impassively.

"You possesed him. You had no rights to see any of those things you're speaking about!" she hissed and his pupil narrowed.

"Oh, please." he rolled his eye and her grip tightened. "I have as much right as you do."

"Really, now? How come?" she hissed. "What made you think you have the right to spy on Pinpin? You think you're better than us, his friends, is that it?" he snorted at that and closed his eye warily. When he looked at her again his gaze was as sharp as the blade that held him.

"At least I understand him and don't try to change him."

Evangelyne gasped and for a long moment found herself looking numbly at the demon.

"I.. I'm not trying to change him." she mumbled after a while and her hand fell limply to her side.

He didn't reply.

Evangelyne started walking.

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After another half an hour of treading trough the dying forest, Evangelyne was ready to drop somewhere and sleep. Or maybe curse one, sword bound, lying, annoying Shushu. What even tempted her to follow his instructions? Cra help her, this time she was going insane, for sure. Maybe it was the heat, or the exhaustion, but she could swear she smelled some roasted meat and it made her mouth water and her stomach remind her viciously it demanded nutrition.

Eva considered whether she should make a camp and rest for a bit while ducking under a low hanging branch, when she came upon a clearing.

Two things hit her at once. One: the smell of roasted meat was stronger and very real, for in the centre of the small clearing there was a blazing fire and some sort of meat impaled on a stick. Two: all of her friends were sitting around, relaxing and laughing, drinking fresh water from the nearby pond.

"Eva!"

The call of her name snapped her out of her reverie and she saw the Iop make his way towards her happily. She disentangled herself from the bushes, sweeping her hands over her clothing in a hopeless attempt to appear unruffled and unaffected as ever.

"Pinpin? What.."

"What took you so long? We were worried about you." Tristepin grinned his winning smile and led her towards the campsite. "Ruel almost ate all of your share, you know? I had to fight him off, but without a sword it's kind of hard to go against a shovel."

As if in a daze she let him help her sit near the pond with Amalia and Yugo who greeted her enthusiastically. A moment later she was handed a flask of fresh water and she gulped its contents down gratefully. The cool liquid made her sigh in relief. It seemed as all of her weariness was being washed away and new strenght blossomed inside her.

"You look tired, Evangelyne. Do you want some more water? Or meat? It's really tasty, you know." asked the Knight, hovering nearby and grinning. The Cra nodded to both and he left to fetch her a meal that Ruel was preparing.

"My, Eva, you look dreadful." remarked the Sadida princess to which Evangelyne answered with _A Look_. "But it works for you, I suppose." she quickly amended and tried to edge away.

"How did you find this place?" the Cra asked finally and Yugo laughed.

"Pinpin found it!"

"What?"

"It's true, it's true! We were all separated, walking in the forrest and one by one, Pinpin found us all and led us here." All in all, it was a very vague explanation and the Cra wanted to press for more details, but her childhood friend caught her attention.

Amalia leaned closer to the blond. "We wanted to look for you, but he said there was no need. Eva, I think you need to explain that Iop-brain what does it mean to care for someone." she whispered with disdain. "I mean, he never even attempted to look!"

"Here you are." the Iop returned and handed the Cra her meat and then promptly sat down next to her. He noticed the accusatory glare of Amalia and Evangelyne's hurt look. "What? What did I do? Don't you like it?" he gestured towards the meat. "I can get you a better one, I you want."

"You Iop-brain, I was telling her how you didn't want to look for her!" snapped the green haired girl and Tristepin blinked owlishly.

"So?"

"You moron-!"

"You've found Rubilax, didn't you, Eva?" he turned from the homicidal Sadida barely restrained by Yugo to Evangelyne and she nodded. "So there was no need to worry. He led you here, didn't he?"

She was about to reply, when a voice she hasn't heard since their last argument decided to speak up.

"Not that she cooperated. It's the last time I do you any favors." grumbled the Shushu and Tristepin laughed. Evangelyne reached for the sword to her belt and handed it to its rightful owner, observing them from the corner of her eye.

"If you say so, Rubi."

"I do say so! And don't think I will change my mind! 'Coz I won't!" he sputtered at the manhandling but Evangelyne thought she could almost see Rubilax looked more at ease in Pinpin's grip than he had in hers.

She tried to ignore the fond look the Iop send the demon and tuned out the rest of their conversation as best as she could, immersing herself in her meal.

But most of all, Evangelyne tried to ignore the feeling of something important slipping through her fingers.

XENDX

I think this. is. SPARTAAAA! I mean, it. This is it. Dunno, not quite what I wanted to do with it, but meh.


End file.
